Standard disclaimers apply.
Permitted Audacities
You're Allowed to Smile
Footsteps were soft as the boy crept down the hall and into his older brother's room. The door slid open silently but Sasuke assumed that his brother must have heard him coming somehow because the older Uchiha's eyes were open, though he failed to grant his sibling a glance.
Sasuke paused for a moment, entering soon after when Itachi didn't reprimand him for bothering him so late at night. He padded over to the prodigy's bed, climbing in clumsily and snuggling up to Itachi's warm side. The thirteen-year-old genius merely shifted his weight, dark eyes locked on the ceiling. "Sasuke, why aren't you in your own bed?"
"It's cold in there. And I keep having nightmares." Voice was quiet and sheepish, ashamed of his obvious weakness and inferiority in comparison to Itachi. Itachi, he was sure, would never be so pathetic as to let the horrors of night unnerve him. Still, Sasuke shifted closer to the older boy regardless, curling himself around Itachi's arm and burying his face into the boy's shoulder.
Finally the eldest son found the desire to look toward his brother- his small, helpless, and naïve little brother. The warmth Sasuke yearned for could not be found in him, no doubt, nor in their dear mother and father. And if that was so, then surely the only one Sasuke could depend on was himself. Itachi knew this, yet the young boy remained oblivious. How could the eight-year-old possibly seek comfort in him, when he was about as tainted and troubled as they came? Itachi had lost his tenderness long ago.
"You're allowed to smile, you know."
Itachi's musings were interrupted by the voice of his brother, noticing that the younger was staring up at him expectantly. The statement had, truth be told, caught the shinobi slightly off guard, having never been told such a thing before.
Seeing that he wasn't going to actually be answered, Sasuke continued. "You should be more happy. I don't like it when you're sad." Having apparently said what he wished Sasuke murmured sleepy goodnight and nestled up against Itachi once more, drifting off to sleep.
-----
The next day, when Sasuke came home and found his precious brother looming over the motionless forms of his dead parents, one particular thing broke through the fuzziness of his mind: Lingering on Itachi's lips was the first genuine smile Sasuke had seen in a long while.
Kyki's Corner
Hola, dear readers, and welcome to Permitted Audacities, a series of drabbles and one-shots focused on the Naruto characters. The stories won't be very long, or at least most won't, but that's necessary for the series' purpose. Although, I imagine that most will be longer than this one, perhaps. : ) Read and review, if you'd like, and feel free to make requests regarding a chapter about a certain character and I'll see if I can do it.